Down with the Sickness.

So I have a chest infection. I have been to the doctor and have antibiotics. I am resting, taking plenty of fluids (though you know I am ill proper when I can not even mange tea). I have a fever and generally feel like buckets of warm crap.
I even missed my on-line course. While I have plenty of reason to turn this into a big old pity party I have to say I have been lucky this year.The new meds seem to have helped me kick winter in the ass this year as I haven't had my November through to March lurgy. I had a wonderful birthday and saw friends from all over the country. Some stayed with us a few days, some a little longer. I had wonderful handmade and bought gifts of all shapes and sizes, though the hand crocheted blanket kind of my go to right now. I have an apple wood candle holder. A ton of chocolate. A glass altar plate all shiny for Imboc and a vase full yellow roses. While it is frustrating being vulnerable and frustrating I can not do the things I want to get done, especially with the book, I have dreamed long and deep.
In my dreams I see rivers. I see mountains and mist. Towers in the distance and sometimes I hear bells, sometimes the call of sea birds. All feels peaceful. I feel like I am forgetting something, and remembering all at the same time. Of course then I have another coughing fit and hope I don't puke up the meds I last taken.

Steam.
After a long birthday weekend of much food and merriment I seem to have caught the chesty lurgy of one of my many guests. He is still here and currently steaming in my "working" cauldron with herbs, fruit and oils. I believe we will all have a sit and steam. To cleanse and be clear. It is a great way to get rid of all the gunk. As a meditation it is also rather powerful. I sometimes end up scrying with the dark murky depths too. Truths foreseen are not always truths, especially when you are off balance.
My blend today was sage, rosemary and thyme, a touch of lavender, juniper, some essential oils (black pepper and clove).
I will be immersing my self in deeper waters too. Looking at myths and symbols in old poetry.
I doubt the dishes will get done today. 

Duets.
It seems logical today for me to talk about duets because I have been playing one with mini witch on our flutes. Magick with others is very like music. As within a rehearsal or piece of music you have to decide whether the mistake requires stopping and beginning again or carrying on.

 It matters little who made the mistakes, though it is fine to feel pleased when you didn't make any. It doesn't make you superior to the other player for we all miss notes sometimes, get our tuning off or just have a bad day. Be gracious and kind when you play with others and allow them their space as well as their mistakes. It is how we learn. Keep your music tidy, and your instruments clean. It is not only sensible but respectful to those objects and also to the music. Practice makes better, but never perfect. A spine tingling performance need not be note perfect and some that are, seem flat and dull. While some seem to torture The Art in the name of money, remember that it is okay to earn money doing what you love.
Music build bridges, sheds hope and light where there was despair. It can reveal and hide the truest things about the performer and what it means to be human and can touch on the Divine. It can happen anywhere. When it happen spontaneously it is one of the most memorable and wonderful experiences in the world.

Art.

I first started drawing, painting and sculpting my Goddesses and Gods, Fae and spirits, because I either couldn't afford the ones that I liked, or the ones I found were lacking in something.
I didn't give them as gifts and I didn't sell them. Then people started asked for pieces. Sometimes as presents for ritual rooms, sometimes as spell canvases with a particular intent. 

My paintings are now all over the world, which is a little weird for me but I like that people get what I do, well some people!

I spent my "free" time today painting. I have four big ones on the go at the moment. Two are inspired by books and one is the Light Goddess that will sit opposite the Dark Goddess. I don't know what I am doing with the fourth canvas except drawing birds all over it!

 

Off to the Dentists.

So I am going to get poked and prodded in my mouth, as are TK and mini witch. More blog later you lovelies.

The Book

So where have I been? The simple answer is is in bed or working with my NEW EDITOR!!! It is so exciting and complicated but we figured out that self publishing is going to be easier than paying someone else to do it for me. I have started a Kickstarter account and I will be gifting donors affirmation cards (still designing) maybe recording one of my guided meditations for folks to download, and at some point making a video!
So I am still writing, and learning, I am just pouring it into the 
THE KEY: Unlocking your Magickal Potential.
I want an actual book (with the new book smell and everything) and this miracle I invited into my life gets the work, gets where I am coming from, and doesn't want to rip me off.
It is so hard for me right now to keep all of the plans secret (but they need to be). I am also planning book two (planning maybe a strong word, maybe treading the grapes and seeing what comes out).
My birthday is coming up and I will be 35. I don't feel embarrassed about how old I am, after the last year I am just glad I made it. While I have some invasive surgery and other tests coming up in the near future I am focusing on the positive.
I wanted to thank all you guys that read my work and that believe in me and what I am doing. So because I suck at keeping my own secrets here is a sneak peek at some blurb for ya.

"The Key is a magickal manual to unlocking your own potential. It is practical, insightful and allows the student of any level to look at their path with new eyes. There are assignments, poems, prayers, meditations of many kinds with a support and warmth that a seasoned teacher gives. Regardless of your place under the pagan umbrella there is something within this book can teach you. It treats the student holistically to allow greater balance with both ritual and non ritual magickal life."

January.

Always a crazy month with all the birthdays. Especially so this one. We did ritual (a small one) on TK's birthday (just as it turned at about 1am). He cut off a lot of his hair (well I cut it) and gave it up to the fire and to the big fat moon. It was rather emotional.
It burned for a while (in the pit) after we went to bed. Then was yesterday it's self which revolved around cake. Good friends came over in the evening and we feasted.

Today I am glad we have vegi burgers planned. We intend to have big feast on the weekend of my birthday.
I am feeling tired but positive about all the future holds. 
I have this weird creative itch in my brain. A poem brewing. A spell. A dream? 
I think I am going to need much more hedge clippings, as orders for protective charms are stacking up. The willow and hawthorn are not such an issue it is the blackthorn that is difficult to collect and work with.

I had more physiotherapy yesterday too, which wasn't as painful as the last batch, but I am really rather sore today, especially with caring for Pops. Still it is how I walk my Path.

Rest.
              I knew I would have an intense and wonderful experience with an online course last night but I woke yesterday feeling really ill and crappy (coughing lumps and sneezing). I tried to rest most of the day. I managed to lie on the sofa but not to sleep (I think I was too excited). The day passed quickly. I drank herbal tea and took regular stuff for my fever. By the time the course started at 7.30pm I even sounded human!
Well it was just brilliant. Not only did I understand what was being spoken about I found it very stimulating and after it finished my brain felt stretched but in a good way. I was tempted to head straight to be but I was kind of wired.
Any way 3am happened and I finally crawled into bed. I heard TK get up today but though I managed to get out of bed I could not form words properly. He very kindly said I look like the dead and that he would go and clean and shop for his father today. (Why I dragged my ass out of bed).
I have folks who have called and want readings in the next few days and I am loathed to cancel but I don't want to get any sicker.
I intend to go back to bed and meditate on the idea of marga. It means "the path" or "the way", like dao does. I do enjoy the way the Universe paints and weaves things together. The way I get a new words for path when I am planning a book about paths...I can feel subtle connection on the edge of my mind crystallizing slowly. Ideas about myth, poetry and symbolism, about dreams and magick, about The Veil. Is the Veil a dream space? If you can enter this dreaming at will (astral projection, spirit journeying, fae work) are you tapping into a "collective unconscious"? Is it a marga space with depth, potential and paradox?
Oddly I feel that I need to sleep on it. That the answers will resolve if I just let them. It of course could just evaporate like some such thoughts do only to fall as something that appears new later. I feel I will dream of the ocean, I long for it today (not that I could enjoy it).

Somewhere

Somewhere between the sky and sea
That is where my love will be.
It doesn't settle anywhere
It floats like clouds within the air.
It has no time, it has no space
My love does not dwell in one place
Somewhere between the sky and sea
That is where my love will be
It has no colour you can see
But takes the skies hues reflectively.
Where all you see is rain and cloud
I see my love whisper aloud.

Knackered

So I am just home from the ritual and spell work I did with my dear friend. It was a lot of work and a lot of dead people were hanging around (this wasn't morbid rather them wanted to be heard). Then this morning we had a spirit talking session and I did some healing.
Any the who. I need tea and then some sleep. 

The Hecate Wheel I made is on the candle holder.
 

Sorry for the Silence.

I have been busy.

This painting is being auctioned off to help the medical cost for my dear friends daughter.
I have also been asked to do some work protecting some folks from some rather unpleasant folk to that end I made this.

It has been brought to my attention that some...person is going through this blog and ripping me off wholesale and passing the ideas of as their own.While that is sad, I do not find it particularly vexing. You may be able to copy my talk but you can not walk my walk. I always find it puzzling when folks do this to me. Not because I think my ideas are so great, but because they value their own experiences so little. Any the who, busy, busy busy. Going to do a big ritual tonight and stay over. I will get round to taking down my decorations at some point....
You know I think I will make one of the thorn rings for myself when I have time.